"Office politics" are the strategies that people play to gain advantage, personally or for a cause they support. The term often has a negative connotation; in that it refers to strategies people use to seek advantage at the expense of others or the greater good.”

Office work politics can be a big drain on productivity and business morale. Some would argue that people seem to spend more time defending their back than they do actually working. In order to combat it, first let’s understand the underlying reasons:

Some people have more power than others, either through hierarchy or some other basis of influence.

For many people, gaining promotion is important, and this can create competition between individuals, or misalignments between the team's objectives and those of individuals within the team.

Most people care passionately about decisions at work and this encourages political behaviour as they seek to get their way.

Decisions at work are impacted by both work-related goals and personal factors, so there is further scope for goal conflict.

People and teams within organisations often must compete for limited resources; this can lead to a kind of "tribal conflict" where teams compete to satisfy their needs and objectives, even when this is against the greater good.

To an extent, some office politics can be good. It can motivate workers to improve employee productivity and strive to achieve their best results, hopefully for the common good of the company.

At the same time, the wrong kind of office politics can undermine employee morale and leave employees frustrated and disenfranchised, with some really amazing employees choosing to leave due to the environment. The key to keeping office politics positive is to understand it and manage it.

The more management has respect, encourage an open line of communication and empower their employees the less office politics will be entrenched in the culture.

Employees who are focused on passion-driven work and collaborating with others, have no time to waste playing politics and / or take credit for others work as they are focused on making a difference together.